Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Currently, NPCs player a negligible role in PVP or other player interactions. Also, residents must be online 24/7 to defend their space. NPCs could player a valuable role in PVP during all hours, unify the worlds of PVP and NPC, and increase the stake in claiming and developing sovereign space.

The proposal is that NPCs enter PVP constellation defense in a meaningful and player-led way based on extended NPC combat work within each respective constellation. The role of the NPC shifts away from being merely "boring red crosses" to earnable player tools in PVP. Nothing would be changed about current NPC combat except that players would earn points in a system with the opposition NPC which would be used to build fleet compositions in that system's constellation. The NPC would be limited to operations within the constellation were they were organized, they would be assigned roles (like guarding a ship, a gate, a station, or any celestial object), they would not fire on players with blue standings to the player-alliance with sovereignty on each respective system or with blue standings to the player who organized them, and they would support and follow primaries of the player, the sovereign player-alliance members, and their blues (in order of priority). There could be many NPC fleets on any particular grid at a time, depending on the work done by the residents. Now for the details.

Killing Serpentis in Serpentis space would earn points with the Serpentis opposition NPC force (perhaps called Guristas). After killing 20 battleships, a player would have enough points to add an NPC, scramming frigate to his fleet. The player would go to a planetary customs office and select the ships with the capabilities of interest. The points would be allocated as they were added to an NPC fleet. The NPC fleet could then be named, assigned a role, deployed to a location within the system, and customized by swapping ships for points.

In the absence of the player on grid, the fleet would perform its role on its own. Once the player is on grid with the fleet, it automatically follows the player's primaries as long as standings rules are observed. The presence of players blue to the sovereign player-alliance enables the NPC fleet to follow a randomly chosen player who is blue to that alliance. Fleets assigned to defend a player's ship remain off-grid until the player's ship appears uncloaked in space.

Support ships perform their functions as well. Scanning ships notify local of the nearest planet where a hostile ship has been scanned in system so that players can scan them down. Sensor boosting ships boost the ship of the player who created the NPC fleet. If the player is not on grid, a random player's ship is chosen for NPC boosts.

If NPCs play a major role it would be PVP anymore.

Because NPC "helpers" would offer advantages (no matter how nominal) they would, in effect, become mandatory for everyone to use (because you'd be dumb not to take advantage of it).
Basically it just raises the base cost of efficiency in every aspect of the game (based on PvE grinding no less).

And Malcanis' Law also applies here too. Older, richer players would not have any problems getting the most and best NPCs to help them... while younger, poorer players would not.

As for PvP battles... oh god... a 10 vs. 10 person fight would easily turn into a 100 man TiDi brawl if everyone could bring 5 NPCs to help them.
And the "solo" person who brings 5 NPCs to help him/her will STILL get nuked by the half dozen outlaws who bring their own NPCs.

And then you have balancing issues... how smart should the NPCs be... how hard should they hit... what damage type... their stats... etc. etc.

Overall... it just takes away from player on player interaction.


Finally... this is an MMO game. Socializing with other players should be strongly encouraged (or even mandated).
Allowing players to just "hide" in their own self-imposed bubble (by hiring NPCs) does not bring "content" to the greater game and... quite often... fosters expectations that sometimes run counter to the founding principles of the game (ex. "It's a sandbox! I should be left alone and be just as effective with my NPC army as entire groups of players!").

You pretty much validated my points sir and added the another one; SOV defenders do not need any more advantages than they already have.

It would not be mandatory at all. In fact, if you are attacking, the only way pve would help you is if you could sustain it for a long time INSIDE of the constellation that you are attacking, which is to say BEHIND ENEMY LINES. NPCs are weak especially compared to large fleets and they cannot reship, so NPC fleets would have no effect on any major push into enemy territory. So sorry, but that looks like a big fat NOT MANDATORY as I see it.

On this point about the older, more wealthy players getting the best PVE fleets, I must solidly disagree. First, any player can earn the same points if they invest a bit more time and second, older more wealthy players naturally earn a bit more ISK/hr anyway so there is nothing new about the idea of gaining rewards faster for having better skills and better ships.

As far as server strain goes, there may be a bit more server strain in the first couple of seconds as the weak PVE ships go down, but after that the servers will be just the same as before. So I don't see a big deal with server strain. We have entire capital fleets with tons of drones and servers manage well enough.

I will reiterate that my proposal is that NPC fleets are limited to the constellations in which they are formed. When attacking, no alliance will be able to bring NPCs outside of those constellations. So another big fat NO, bigger alliances will have NO advantage over smaller alliances when attacking outside their home constellations because NPC fleets cannot leave their home constellations to provide any advantage whatsoever.

There is apparently a substantial misunderstanding of my proposal on several points.

The points would only be earned for the local insurgent enemy of the native pirates in the constellation where you are operating. The local insurgents would rally behind you because of the points you earned toward their cause. Your favor with the local pirates would not translate to standings with any group, much less toward groups outside the constellation. Your alliance can go on a road trip, but the points and NPC fleets formed in the home constellations stay in their respective constellations. The local resistance is only interested in local politics.

And for drone space, I have no idea which race would be resisting drone NPCs. Perhaps the two nearest pirate factions would be options (Guristas and Angel).

To be perfectly clear, I should reiterate that NPC fleets and points earned for building them would never leave the local constellations where they were earned\created.

So what you are saying is that this is designed to bone small roaming fleets. When a couple of Inties head over to Provi to kill some Ratters suddenly they have like 1000 TPing Angle Rats shooting them. (pretty sure a few Elite frigs could mess up most PVP frigs day)

what about a well fit and led player fleet against another well fit and led player fleet + npc to give it more strenght?
if something give you a definite advantage it becomes mandatory.

OP's idea sounds interesting, potentially quite fun.

The NPC fleets would integrate into the player fleets when the respective player joins a fleet. While in a player fleet, the NPC fleet (appearing as a single entry in the fleet) would follow the primaries of the designated primary caller, provide field logistics to the player fleet with its logistics ships, and boost the player fleet with its command ships, depending on the ships available in the NPC fleet. The NPC fleets should have their own squads with the fleet commander giving the NPC fleets direction with commands like: Defend the fleet, Blockade the gate at optimals, Blockade the gate at zero, or Patrol the POS/station/IHUB/etc.

The NPC fleet follows the directions of the player while the player is not in fleet, but follows the directions of the FC while the player is in fleet.